Muscle Media Magazine

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    What do you bring to the table…?

    Estrogen, Oral Contraceptives AND Muscle Growth

    The Dynamic Warm-Up

    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Facebook Instagram RSS
    Muscle Media Magazine
    Subscribe Login
    • Store
    • Our Magazine
      • Magazine Download Desktop
      • Magazine Download Mobile
      • Apple News
    • TRAINING
      1. Fitness class
      2. Gym equipment
      3. Routines
      4. Sport equipment
      5. View All

      The Importance of Working Your Core Muscle

      You Need More Than Aerobic Exercise

      Exercise Videos At Home

      All About Working The Transverse Abdominals

      Rowing Machine, Exercise Equipment

      Free Weights vs. Machine Exercise

      Training With a Stability Ball

      Buying An All-In-One Home Gym

      Arm Exercise

      Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

      5 Super Simple Exercise Tips

      The Importance of Working Your Core Muscle

      Exercise Equipment Options

      Training With a Stability Ball

      Equipment for Home Exercise

      Amazing Kettlebell Workout Produces Superior Results

      Estrogen, Oral Contraceptives AND Muscle Growth

      The Dynamic Warm-Up

      Get Up Get Outside Get Moving

       Benefits of Hypertrophy Training

    • DATING

      6 Tips For Safe Online Dating

      Single Dads, 8 Dating Rules

      Your Digital Spring Date

      3 Things That Can Save You When You Don’t Know What To Say

      “Tools” For Picking-Up Girls

    • HEALTH & WELLNESS
      1. BODY
      2. DIET & NUTRITION
      3. MIND
      4. MOTIVATION
      5. SPIRIT
      6. TOPICS FOR MEN
      7. View All

      Are  SARMs the future of sport performance?

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

      Sleep & Athletic   Performance

      Antihistamines  &  Physical Activity

      Timing Your Nutrition

      Performance Supplementation

      Why go Raw?

      Amino Acids in Food

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

      Making Exercise More Fun

      Mirror, Mirror on the Wall… Body Image

      Hypnosis Weight Loss: Stop the “Weighting”

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

      Get Minutes Of Fitness Exercise

      5 Super Simple Exercise Tips

      Child Exercise Equipment

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

      Making Exercise More Fun

      Spiritual Growth: Spiritual Challenges of Modern Times

      Hypnosis Weight Loss: Stop the “Weighting”

      Timing Your Nutrition

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

      Antihistamines  &  Physical Activity

      Single Dads, 8 Dating Rules

      Timing Your Nutrition

      Mental Strengthening for Athletes with Injuries

      Are  SARMs the future of sport performance?

      Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss

    • DIET & NUTRITION
      • LOSE WEIGHT
      • RECIPES
    Muscle Media Magazine
    Home»TRAINING & FITNESS»Training Frequency & Muscle Gains: More is Not Necessarily Better!
    TRAINING & FITNESS

    Training Frequency & Muscle Gains: More is Not Necessarily Better!

    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp VKontakte Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    BY Alexander Boivin, MS

    Most people who train for muscle gains use a very common training template. Each body part is specifically trained at low frequency once per week. In fear of not recovering before the next work out, most gym goers believe that it takes roughly 6-7 days to recover the muscle group previously worked. Thus, the birth of the “Bro-split”, or a “Bodybuilding” routine. Training with this routine may be beneficial for the novice or beginner population. However, it is unsubstantiated among the scientific literature for advanced trainees. Far from being superior, it may be holding you back from gaining that next few pounds of chiseled beef.

    When a training program is tailored to a specific fitness goal, there are variables that need to be assessed and manipulated to elicit a desired outcome. Advanced trainees may want to consider less important variables such as exercise selection, exercise order, tempo, and rest periods. The more important variables to address include total training volume, duration, intensity, and frequency.

    Volume represents how much you train, such as the number of hard sets completed per week. For example, if you train chest with 4 exercises and each exercise involves 3 sets of 10, you can record your weekly volume as 12 sets (4×3=12). I know this is not exactly rocket science, but it’s an important concept that many people ignore, and become doomed by their own ignorance.

    Weekly training volume has been correlated with muscle gains. A greater volume of sets per muscle per week equates to greater muscle gain. But, there is a caveat. More is not necessarily better! While volume is typically correlated with muscle gain, adding too much volume too soon will impact your recovery. You will gain less muscle than if you had trained with a slightly lower volume and optimized your recovery. A relevant study examined the popular “German Volume” training routine against a group that trained with half the volume. The group that trained with less volume gained significantly more muscle.

    So TOO much volume is not a good thing. The take away is to train with enough volume to promote growth, and to progressively increase this volume over time. Possibly over months and years.

    Okay, cool. We know that volume is important, but what about training frequency?

    Resistance training frequency does two things to unleash rapid muscle gains

    First

    increasing frequency may be an independent stimulator of muscle growth (Boivin, et al. 2016). This suggests that simply working out at the same volume, but increase how often you trained, more muscle growth would result. For the “sciency” folks, the explanation could be the increased time for muscle growth might stimulating a positive muscle-growth environment more often. Instead of spiking nutrients, myokines, hormones and other anabolic factors once per week, doing it more often may help the recovery and adaptation processes.

    Increased frequency example:
    Isovolumeric
    (Same volume, Increased frequency)

    NORMAL BRO SPLIT FOR CHEST

    Monday: Chest day
    Bench 4×10
    Cable fly 3×10
    DB Incline press 3×10
    Decline bench 3×10
    Push up finisher 3×10

    HIGHER FREQUENCY

    Monday: Bench 4×10, Decline Bench 3×10 Wednesday: Cable Fly 3×10
    Friday: DB Incline Press, Push up Finisher 3×10

    Second

    increasing the frequency allows for a greater volume per week without negatively impacting recovery. See what I did there? Remember how we established that volume is an important piece of a training program for muscle growth? In a bro-split, your chest day might contain 13 sets for chest, yet you are no longer growing. The simple solution would be to increase the number of sets, or to add an exercise. However, we cannot continue to simply add sets forever. There will eventually be a point of diminishing returns. Not very encouraging! No one wants to spend endless hours doing chest work in one day. Remember that most muscle groups do not grow past three days in trained individuals.

    The solution to this dilemma is to increase the frequency to allow an increase in volume. Instead of adding another set or exercise for chest, try adding a chest movement later in the week. You could have two similar days, or one day with more volume and one with less. Either way, the total “sets per week” will have increased, thus creating a favorable environment for gains!

    BTW…This theory applies for all body parts.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
    Previous ArticleEnhancing Recovery with Creatine
    Next Article Interval Training- Sprint Interval Training & High Intensity Interval Training

    Related Posts

    Estrogen, Oral Contraceptives AND Muscle Growth

    The Dynamic Warm-Up

    Get Up Get Outside Get Moving

     Benefits of Hypertrophy Training

    Comments are closed.

    infinitelabs digital
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    DR TOM - GOT A MINUTE
    DR TOM - GOT A MINUTE

    What do you bring to the table…?

    This is one of the questions I most often ask of my patients and clients.…

    Estrogen, Oral Contraceptives AND Muscle Growth

    The Dynamic Warm-Up

    Timing Your Nutrition

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from SmartMag about art & design.

    infinitelabs digital
    Facebook Instagram
    • Advertise with us
    • Contact Us
    • Muscle Media Magazine App Downloads
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Write for Muscle Media
    © 2023 musclemediaonline.com | All rights designed. Designed by Infinite Labs Digital.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Sign In or Register

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below.

    Lost password?